My Library

“Freely, without force or compulsion, I solemnly promise to sleep the sleep of Sialam before I quit this house, and in it will truly answer you all I may be able to, on condition that you previously clear up the mystery surrounding yourself; thus voluntarily giving you what an age of fraud would not enable you to obtain, you first solemnly promising, by Him by whose will you exist, be you man or demon, not to influence me, either now or when I shall slumber.” A gleam of sudden joy flashed from the eyes of the strange being before us. He looked like a bridegroom in the fullness of his joy, and clasping both hands—pale, thin, bluish-white hands—upon his breast, he looked up and said: “So be it! I solemnly bind myself, by the most terrible oath conceivable, that I accept all your conditions.” Then going to the recess mentioned before, he brought thence a semi-circular screen, a little taller than a man, and about four feet in diameter. This he requested the Commissary of Police to examine, who did so, and declared it to be nothing but a common bedside screen. “You are right! it is nothing but a bedside screen. Such as it is, however, I request you to select for it any spot you choose upon the stone floor of either of these rooms. I shall want to go behind it; and that you may not harbor a thought of an intended evasion on my part, I request that you